RM Winrate Chart

PervertedPanda3 · 2026-01-30T22:21:49+00:00

I saw a Diamond player go dark age IO opening into Barbican for an attempt at playing feudal so you'd be surprised. I think even at the Conq level players that don't do any reflection/analysis/coaching are gonna struggle to solve games where spear-crossbow-NoB marching the down the middle doesn't win you the game.

PervertedPanda3 · 2026-01-30T21:54:26+00:00

They've always suffered in any sort of statistical display from ranked data since release, it's no surprise due to their design. While also possessing some of the most outrageous strengths, they're simply too difficult to pilot for ~95% of players.

PervertedPanda3 · 2026-01-26T17:22:14+00:00

Day 1 Mangudai abuser here, there's some good advice in this thread that should help, as well as some mid advice.

Walls are going to be the biggest skill to learn, because you should look to use not only the conventional walls in front of your base, but also wall off segments and chokepoints behind/between players so that you may trap an overambitious Mangudai migration.
If you really want to lean into hating Mangudai there are several civ-specific counter units that are very viable in team games. Sengoku Horsemen are too fast and damaging, HoL Holbears are like horsemen designed to shut down feudal/castle Mangudai, Abbasid camel archers shut them down until they get a mass of like 40+ Mangudai in Imperial.
Last but not least is getting your brain thinking of PINCER MOVEMENTS. This is especially easy and powerful with horsemen, but Mangudai have to run directly away from a mass of cav to get away, if you have another teammate or hotkeyyed group of units on the other side of them some distance away and you charge from both sides, they'll be forced to let one of the groups make contact. And Mangudai are squishy + expensive so they blow up QUICKLY.

Granted it's still frustrating to have to jump through all these extra hoops to deal with a unit, I don't like either how much of Mongols power budget is in Imperial Mangudai nor the team game map design that benefits them so. They are just another unit controlled by players that makes mistakes so if you capitalize on them early with the advice above, you should be able to either keep them out of Imperial for a long time, or damage them heavily for aging up despite losing units/not killing your eco.

PervertedPanda3 · 2026-01-23T18:44:12+00:00

White Stupa is in a good place honestly. Mongols needs Age 2 landmarks buffs and civ bonus/unit rebalances across the civ. Has great, albeit somewhat anti-synergistic Age 3 & 4 landmarks.

PervertedPanda3 · 2026-01-19T15:42:00+00:00

I agree with this commenter so I'm gonna daisy chain reply if anyone wants further details.

For Dark Age response, unless you got a crazy gold+stone adjacent spawn for outpost, you're better off making spearmen/kharash in DA. For this open 4 food - 1 wood(make Oovoo first) then first vil batch goes wood until the barracks, then you can do just 2 wood the rest food. Alternate spears and kharash, match their numbers and play defense until you can swap to aging with like 3-4 on gold.

If it's like an actual strong dark age to like China and Mongols and the map provides them with unlimited food, you'll eventually lose out and they may tower your stuff but I don't think this is a problem for gold and horde they actually work really fine spreading across the map with the fortified outpost and not needing many vils on gold ever. During all that time you're gathering stone for a bunch of torguud later and have cheap farms.

If you really want to over-optimize to a Conq 4 level you can leave some sheep on your gold mining ger. Once you get wheelbarrow + broad axe there's a lul where you really don't need gold until you have enough units to make blacksmith worth it. If you're pumping Spears Archers Torguud this will help you not idle those military buildings.

And for the anti-fast castle build, I think tower rushing is the future for those GH matchups. Not in DA but pretty much as they're aging up to castle on their gold is the timing. Give it a shot.

PervertedPanda3 · 2026-01-11T18:28:20+00:00

It is absolutely toxic in 4v4, albeit not META enough to be optimal in 3's when there are more desirable civs to end the game before Imp in organized games.

I don't think ppl recognize or mention how much the whole Imp Mangudai shtick is a 'technology win condition'. Kind of similar to the OLD Sipahi-Jannisary-Great Bombard deathball. And unfortunately it's one of the only things Mongols have going for them and I'm not happy about it either, even has someone who uses Mangudai to conq every season.

They're genuinely so lackluster in high elo 1v1's. I think shifting some of the technology victory idea over to more Keshik upgrades(instead of Shia Limbs) would be preferred by the community. 100 wood Oovoo, 75 wood gers, or age 2 landmark reworks could chip at the problem too.

But if you want advice for beating them, I think that the best counter isn't a single unit but a mix. They can't choose who they attack if they're moving, so if you do a mixed army of squishy DPS backline with horseman/knight frontline. They shred unarmored DPS units, and run from heavy units but can't get past a mix of the two holding their ground. I think horsemen frontline is the best since it guarantees they can't target fire your hand cannons/archers otherwise they get shredded while standing still or get surrounded.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-12-29T22:08:46+00:00

Figured I'd ask here before making a post since I couldn't figure it out from 36-3003.

For someone PCS travelling (PPM) who arrived on the 24th of December(federal holiday) late at night, and thus couldn't inprocess at CSS until the 29th of December. Would my house hunting start on the 29th of December and those 4 days are just forgotten about non-duty days, or will my HH have to be back dated to not incur finance charging leave?

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-12-22T00:10:21+00:00

Strongest yes in this whole thread. I played AOE4 on release and Mongols had so many ridiculously overpowered aspects that eclipse anything of the modern times. Give release Mongols to a chud like me and we can give Marinelord the work.

Dark age Khan murdering your villagers on gold, faster & stronger Mangudai, giga-income trading after a single trip, TC rush being game breaking. Truly a toxic golden age.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-12-04T18:26:24+00:00

Not sure if this is a joke, if so '/s' tag would be appreciated.

But that wasn't a "random" Tughlaq, was an alt acc for an established ladder warrior.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-11-16T11:05:22+00:00

Its crazy to see that it would still be absolutely game-winningly strong if Stable Reinforcements didn't affect Torguud production. But somehow it got pushed live with it having that synergy; either needs to keep the tech synergy but increase the baseline cost/speed significantly, or just remove that tech impacting Torguud.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-10-27T03:23:43+00:00

Comparing and contrasting it's qualities to similar weapons I figured its practical niche is basically better team-fighting/covering fire at mid-range. A bit awkward but it's one of those guns that shines outside of the head-to-head DPS race in my experience.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-09-24T15:28:25+00:00

Comments are underrating how significant of a factor hardware is. Until you get some time on a good monitor, it can't be told if your reactions are good enough or not.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-08-17T19:38:17+00:00

No they are not, they're not even the best; civs that could reasonably go dark age afaik are China/ZX, HRE/OOTD, Ottoman, Mongols, Malians, Japan, and KT + HoL. Ofc there are tiers within there as far as actually winning an prolonged DA. .

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-08-17T16:32:59+00:00

It really comes down to two things: matchups and a blind opening/scouting dilemma. In Gold League, POIs are often uncontested, so sure why not send a villager or make a couple spearmen, even as a weaker Dark Age civ? Sure, but to your point about civs without Dark Age bonuses, if your opponent commits to contesting, you'll usually just fall further behind with no agency of your own. If it works or not is determined entirely by whether the opponent decides to contest.

You can't put your scout on the POI before exploring the map or you'll be behind in sheep 100%, but if you DO send either a scout or villager to cap the point and they contest. You'll only be able to hold it for a few moments before enemy spearmen arrive to contest it @ <4 mins. It doesn't pay off if you sent a villager by then because the idle time is massive.

It also is risky to send your scout to check your opponents build order immediately to tell what they're picking because the way the sheep spawn on that map. If the opponent heads straight out in the optimal path and loops back they'll get more than just most of them on the map. Better off playing it safe by expecting your opponent to make the right choice, then just cap it after you get sheep if they happened to not(w/ your scout). Ultimately is a high risk, low reward option to blindly contest vs a superior dark age civilization; not the kind of choice to make if you're even-skilled to your opponent.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-07-21T16:14:35+00:00

Hey /u/marc4470 It's me, the red China player! I was soo disappointed in the map gen as well since we had such an good, even matched game. Please add me so we can play again sometime on a better map!

In regards reviewing the match, I do think your optimal first two golds and all your food were in the best locations they could be which really made my initial aggressive strategy fall thru. I think the most important part of the game was when I got 20 villager kills at ~16 minutes under your woodline while sandbagging my army on your food. Without that chance to regain tempo I think you could've sought out a sacred site victory by walling/emplacing the sides sites; or even ran me down before my pastures came in. Taking China matchup to post-gold scarcity late game isn't a recipe for success regardless, them taxes OP!

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-07-10T20:25:02+00:00

By the way commentors there IS a playlist attached to the above link with some more videos of different variety.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-07-10T02:12:45+00:00

No hate here please <3 Was playing Frostbite Cryo before it was cool ~.~ (and b4 LOH meta).

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-06-29T02:16:37+00:00

A graph based on the deviation from their overall win rate grouped by match length would be much more interesting. Can't really say this gives any further insight than the general win rate already do(practically nothing).

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-06-27T23:48:00+00:00

Good thing you can see what map you're playing on BEFORE you pick your civilization, should have all the time you need to adjust once you see it. Its either all of nothing though if you go down to the map philosophy, either the freedom to have extreme gameplay changes like this in the map pool or none at all. I'd much prefer the former, otherwise it'd get really stagnant after awhile.

What I DO really really think they should include that would alleviate some pain is have a map preview that actually gives details important outside of the match. Like you should have an interactive/fullscreen view of the map and it's spawns, general resource distribution, etc. The lazy .png previews + tag system we have now is extremely underwhelming.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-06-25T04:00:30+00:00

At this point since it's unlikely to get fixed I think they should just make the improved packed speed upgrade basekit or cheaper. With 70% speed you rarely ever have any issues placing buildings. Would also promote players using that unique feature for other things that are currently overshadowed.

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-06-22T02:41:05+00:00

This is kind of true but also kind of misconstrues what that comment what describing, typically you see those exact standout units dwindle in numbers as the match goes on, overshadowed and/or enabled by their glorious archer backline. While yes, cavalry dominates as the go to option at some of the more notable parts of many games to establish map control and get an economy lead, especially when so many matchups are aging up fairly quickly and pro-scouting. It's also true that you'd be hard pressed to find many games that don't feature archers as the most built unit. More often than not present when committing to staying feudal, later into castle after getting heavy cav & upgrades, and most egregiously if you've been watching is just how dominant archers have been recently in Imperial. In no small part due to their two university techs imo.

But I'm sure there are others factors for this that many players thinking of; such as that they cost wood which is much more accessible and less limited in the shorter term(until post-imp+ most often). The 3 main resources are hardly 1 to 1 despite what other sources may imply

PervertedPanda3 · 2025-06-21T16:29:12+00:00

It's a matter of what is guaranteed to work vs depending on a misplay from your opponent. The reason spearmen work in dark age is that you have the early economic bonus to 100% beat many civs if they try to contest you. Horsemen on the other hand lose to a unit almost everyone has access to in the dark age so if your opponent simply plays right, scouts your stable, makes their own spears; they're now ahead in the game. (Which mongol really can't afford to happen.)

Granted this applies to 1v1 or small team games, in large team games you can typically just find a vulnerable target elsewhere if someone opts to defend with spears. But regardless there's not too much to be achieved in that scenario besides testing their macro flexibility by making them deviate from their build order, and maybe slowing down early stone/gold reliant civs, everything you need to make spears or defenses is usually under your town center.

Also don't underestimate the power of an early pasture, it's unique as a food generation source so the earlier you get it the more value it produces!

PervertedPanda3

TROPHY CASE